Apple Muffins

August 20

Many of us can commiserate on the fact that our metabolisms have decreased significantly since our youth. Whether it’s because we’ve fallen out of shape, or just age catching up with us, all that junk we ate as kids makes us add pounds just by looking at it now. What was your favorite junk growing […]

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Vegetaballs

August 03

In our house, we like vegetables. That’s no secret. I like making vegetarian meals. The Fellow™ enjoys them as well, sometimes, and when he’s not crazy starving. I understand the notion – he says he doesn’t feel like he’s as full and satisfied when it’s a vegetarian meal versus something with meat. I feel the […]

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Dill-Ranch Cucumber Chips

July 26

What do you do when you have an excess of cucumbers in the house? After searching the internet for suggestions on what to do that wasn’t just a boring salad topper, I came across the idea to dehydrate them. Making zucchini chips is popular, and so apparently is cucumber. The instructions for the particular recipe […]

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Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

July 25

Here’s a confession:  I… have a hard time with pancakes. Don’t misunderstand me – I love pancakes. But my skills in the kitchen when it comes to pancakes is subpar. In the past, I’ve attempted many-a different recipe. Straight up from the Bisquick box with my own additions of strawberries or bananas or chocolate chips. […]

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Corn Tortillas

April 24

Corn tortillas. There’s nothing difficult about them. At all. I mean, they can be time-consuming and a bit of a pain in the butt when it comes time to flatten them, unless you have a dough/tortilla press. I acquired one today, finally. It made this recipe all the easier and actually a bit fun. It […]

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Dark Cocoa & Cinnamon Brownies

March 15

I’m sure there are brownie perfectionists out there who think using cocoa powder is a sin, and I’m sure there are some who say cocoa powder is the best part of a brownie recipe, whether it be Dutch-processed or natural. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I don’t think any one of them is “right”. Whereas […]

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Cauliflower, Bacon, and Sage Pasta

March 08

A combination of food I didn’t ever think I might possibly like is the combination of pasta and balsamic vinegar. The only time I ever use balsamic is to make the Asian cabbage and chicken salad. I keep a huge bottle of it in the cupboard, in the event I find another use for it […]

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Slow Cooker Quinoa Chicken Chili

March 03

Chili is one of my favorite types of soups/stews/whatever you want to classify it as. It comes in so many different textures and flavors. Spicy, mild, thick, light, with beans, without beans, with pretty much any type of meat imaginable (I’m quite the fan of ground beef or turkey, to be honest), lots of veggies […]

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Kale & Quinoa Minestrone

March 03

When I made the decision to put together a zillion soups for the basement freezer, I knew what a couple of my go-tos would be. I also wanted something chock full of vegetables. No meat. Something that would be hearty and filling, and of course, would withstand 6 months of freezer time. I’ve made minestrone […]

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Soup Soup Soup

February 22

I’ve been determined to make up copious amounts of freezer meals for us so I’m 100% less likely to want to dine out when I’ve had a long day at work, or I just lack all inspiration to cook. I start to make a list of freezable meals – not just the same crappy crock […]

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Sweet Beef Stir Fry

January 25

I love stir fry and basically any sort of meal that combines a meat with vegetables in one cohesive sauce over a starch of some sort. I’m also a big fan of rice and noodles. So it only makes sense that a meal like this is often consumed in our household. Actually, that’s a wee […]

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Gluten Free Paleo Bread

January 24

My mother has a boss who has been put on a restrictive diet as her doctors attempt to figure out what’s causing her to be sick. Right now, she can’t have gluten. I was asked what I know about a gluten free diet, and what products exist on the market that are gluten free, namely […]

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Potato Leek Soup, featuring Chicken & Bacon

January 13

Part of my goal for 2014 is to conserve my money and do better budgeting when it came to the grocery bill. It is something I foot almost by myself (we go halfsies on Costco) and with my income being next to nothing, I have to be creative and frugal, without starving us or packing […]

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The Easiest Bread You’ll Ever Make

January 10

This bread. I can’t even begin to tell you how easy and wonderful tasting this bread is. I do enjoy making all sorts of bread. I’ve been quite successful with bread. Nothing beats fresh, warm bread. But this recipe… this is a lifesaver when you’re strapped on time. On New Years Eve, I went to […]

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Linguine alla Carbonara

January 04

I’ve been addicted to reddit for about 9 months now. For those of you who don’t know about the site, steer clear of it. It’s foul and catty and full of trolls and jerks and gratuitous nudity, swearing, and violence. For those of you who do know about it, isn’t it just wonderful? Talk about […]

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Pudding Cookies

December 31

I think a very common occurrence during the holidays is the baking of cookies and various types of bread. I know for me, growing up, I spent a long evening or two in the kitchen with my dad playing with his mom’s ancient cookie press, making delicious butter cookies and spritzes. It was great when […]

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Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken Breast with Sage

December 28

One of my favorite cookbooks is Keys to the Kitchen: The Essential Reference for Becoming a More Accomplished, Adventurous Cookby Aida Mollenkamp. It is a beautiful, well pieced together treasure trove of information and recipes. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to own it. Even after receiving five great cookbooks for Christmas […]

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Granola Bars, two ways

December 19

This past year, I got pretty involved with the website, reddit. I’ve submitted various things – usually involving Apollo – and I’ve done a considerable amount of commenting, and even more lurking. Something that I thought was really cool about the reddit community is the plethora of “exchanges” they do throughout the year. Trick or […]

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Gingerbread Cake, with Lemon Whipped Topping

December 15

I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of times, my days run together. I lose track of time. I typically have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off from work. I figure out all sorts of things to do on my days off, to make the most of the free time, and to make […]

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Hungarian Red Potato Goulash

December 05

I’ve been saying for a long time that my stomach belongs in south-eastern Europe. Or rather, it longs for Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Greek, and Italian cuisine. Well, not only my stomach, but me. I need to be there. I need to live there. I will die by food somewhere there, I imagine. In my internet […]

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Cloverleaf Rolls

November 25

A year ago, I was not in a very good place, emotionally. I had a lot of things going on in my life and all I wanted to do was crawl into a deep, dark hole, cry forever, and never see sunlight again. Fortunately, I had a lot of supportive people in my corner who […]

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Croutons

November 13

Yes, you read the title right. This is a post about croutons. I’m going to share with you how to make little crispy bread pieces. The joke used to be, Why do croutons have an expiration date? Aren’t they already stale? And while, yes, you can technically use stale bread to turn into croutons, that’s […]

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Spinach Pesto and Lemon Pasta

November 13

As much as I tell myself I don’t have food allergies, I’m not intolerant to things, and my stomach can handle just about anything (not sure it’d do okay with things like ghost peppers or super rich foods), I do have my fair share of issues. Red sauce on pasta or pizza not sitting well […]

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Pumpkin Pancakes

October 25

Who doesn’t love pancakes? I can’t think of a single person I’ve met who doesn’t like them. There are people who prefer not to use syrup, or not to load up on the butter, or are content to have them smothered and filled with everything under the sun. They’re filling, they can be wholesome and […]

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Cinnamon Toffee Softies

October 21

On a weekly basis, when I’m perusing the aisles of the grocery store, I inevitably end up in the cookie and cracker aisle (because it’s right by the dairy section…), eyeballing all they have to offer. I’m not a huge sweets person (I prefer salty or savory snacks), but there are times when I see […]

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Chex Mix + Bonus Roasted Chickpeas

October 10

I think my favorite sort of food crack is Chex Mix. The combination of crispy bits get eaten in the order of my least favorite:  rye chips, twists, wheat chex, and then lastly the corn chex. With any luck, the manufacturers have included many flavor blasted corn chex in the bag. They really are the […]

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Coconut Curry Shrimp

October 04

Would you believe me if I told you I have never been able to successfully fry shrimp before tonight? Would you believe me if I told you the reason I was never successful at doing it was because my oil was never hot enough, and that I didn’t realize that until recently? And would you […]

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Coconut Noodles

October 04

Pasta, pasta, pasta. It’s always about pasta, isn’t it? Or at least it seems that way. Pasta and shrimp are a great combination, too. Especially if done right. However, the mash up I did was quite different, in that the cream sauce found here is actually coconut milk and various spices, versus heavy cream, butter, […]

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Savory Pot Pie Crust

September 18

One of my favorite foods growing up was Banquet brand chicken pot pies. Occasionally, I’d be game for a turkey one, but 99.9% of the time, it had to be chicken. As I got a little older, I sort of drifted away from my love of them; not for any real reason, but I just […]

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English Muffin Bread

September 11

I’ve mentioned before how recipes jump out at me. If you’re the type of person that scours the internet or cookbooks for all types of recipes like I am, I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean. Certain things just jump off the page at you. It sounds perfect, it looks perfect, it must be perfect, […]

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Cinnamon Coffee Cake

September 11

Did you know that cinnamon dates back as early as 2000BC (if not earlier!), and was once highly prized among ancient nations and regarded as a gift fit for the gods? Or that cinnamon and cinnamon extract is thought to help control blood glucose levels in type II diabetics? In the event you didn’t know […]

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Amaretti Morbidi Cookies

September 07

I have followed the Love and Olive Oil blog for I don’t know how long. I love everything about her little niche on the internet, though I will admit that a good percentage of what she posts are things I wouldn’t make. Not because they’re not good, good-sounding, or delicious looking, but because they’re things […]

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Sopa Azteca

August 28

This recipe for sopa azteca is something I found through a blog I’ve been reading since April. The owner of the blog had posted goat cheese and chive biscuits, and while it’s something I haven’t even come close to attempting to make, they sounded fabulous, as well as many other things she has there. Much […]

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Naan

August 16

Have I ever mentioned how much I love bread? How I think bread, in many varieties, completes a meal? Yes, it’s all filler and makes it so that your meal stretches further than originally intended, but that doesn’t make it less of a complimentary side dish. But brrrrrread. I love it. It will be the […]

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Black Pepper & Garlic Buttermilk Biscuits

August 13

I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like a good biscuit. I mean, there are a lot of people out there who won’t eat them because of the carb content or because they can’t demonstrate self control and eat only one or two (dependent on the size of the biscuit, of course), but it doesn’t mean […]

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